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Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Research Student

Seminar Notes written by
Dina Said (Phd Student, Database Lab at University of Calgary)

1) Care & maintenance of Supervisor:
Know yourself and your supervisor. People are either do'ers or thinkers. If your supervisor is a thinker, always ask them multi-choice questions. Do u think (a) or (b) is better? They will probably tell you and there are also (c) and (d) and (e). Limit them always to tell you one direction rather than thinking and thinking and thinking without an action.
On the other hand, if you supervisor is a do'er and they always tell you do stuff because they think it is just good to try them out. Try to always ask how this is aligned with your thesis question.

Also, it is good to prepare an agenda for meeting with your supervisor, be clear on what to ask, at the end of the meeting tell them what you are going to do next, clearly specify your problems, and have meetings on a regular/frequent basis..Additionally, it is always good to send emails before and after the meeting and print out the agenda and bring it with you.

If you didn't do anything, go to the meeting to discuss why you don't do anything. Are you stuck in something? Do you have problems? It is always good to have meetings on a regular base.

Remember supervisors are busy. Your thesis may be on the top priority of your A List but it may be on the bottom of their priority C list after teaching, administration, etc... However, it's their job to supervise you. But, u should remember that you are the driver of the car not them.

(2) Write and show as you may go

Write journals (log files) of what you have done, write summaries of papers you are reading, it doesn't have in the final shape of the thesis. Remember that it is a "draft and you are develop your writing skills along the way.

(3) Be realistic in your goals ( I' m not a Nobel Prize) *replication in different context
PhD is like adding a grain of sand to one beach. It won't change the world

The issue is that through doing a PhD, u learn to do research and u help your research brain grow so that u can proceed later

(4) Say no to distractions (esp checking e-mails early in the morning, going with friends for coffee break for 2 hrs, social networking, reading news for 2 hrs.. Newton's 3rd Law of Dissertation states that for every action there is an equal and opposite distraction :) ..

An advice that will increase your productivity by at least 10% is to start with your work the first thing in the morning. Postpone emails, FB, etc... for at least 2 hours. Start with the real work, get into the mood, this should motivate you to continue even if you get distracted later.

(5) It's a job ( it's working time..know when to work and when not to work!)

Time for work is time for work. Time for vacation is a time for vacation. Graduate students are feeling guilty all the time because they think they should be working 24/7 but the issue is that they don't really work nor enjoy their lives.

Commit yourself to certain amount of time along the day to work and then enjoy your life after that without any guilty feeling :)

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